Launching A Successful eCommerce Store
Are you ready to get out of the grind and take control of your future? These days, an increasing number of people are choosing to open online stores so that they can take control of their workdays, be their own boss and manage their own futures. One way to do this is by opening your own e-commerce store with platforms like Shopify. Of course, opening a successful e-commerce store and selling products isn’t as simple as signing up to your desired platform and loading products. You must first plan for success and then implement that plan, so let’s take a look at how to get your online store running and ready for success.
Determine Whether You’ll Be Selling Digital or Physical Goods
Digital goods are things like software, ebooks and games. Digital goods don’t require having any physical inventory in your home or a warehouse, and once it’s up, it’s available for all to purchase. The only thing you have to do is make regular updates to the software.
Physical goods are things you can hold in your hand. It could be jewelry, clothing, lotions, creams, chairs, household goods, handcrafted items or electronics. If you’re selling physical products, you’ll need a place to store them. This could be your basement, garage or spare bedroom.
Research Your Market
In order to be successful, you’ll need to figure out where your business fits. This means researching your market and asking yourself a few questions, including who’s my competition? What are they selling? What’s their angle? How is my business different? What segment of the audience am I looking to attract? Is this business feasible?
Choose Your Name, Domain and Type of Company
Once you’ve researched your market, it’s time to choose a business name, domain name, and the type of company. Your business name should be simple yet catchy and tell customers about your products. For example, if your name is Bob and you’re selling chairs, you might call your business Bob’s Chairs. To begin building a strong brand you should choose your color scheme, fonts and the best logo design. Next, you want your business name to be your domain name. This helps with marketing, so you’ll want something like BobsChairs.com. If BobsChairs.com isn’t available, find a domain that is available. This may mean going through several name iterations in order to find one that works for your business and is available as a domain. Next, determine whether you’re a sole-proprietor, partnership, corporation, S Corp or LLC. If your business is anything but a sole proprietor, you’ll need to fill out the appropriate legal paperwork.
Choose Your Shopping Platform
In order to sell products, you’ll need an online store that uses a platform people already trust. Options include Shopify, WooCommerce, Weebly and Adobe Commerce. Out of that list, Shopify is likely the most recognized. It also integrates well into many different types of websites and accounting and marketing management software platforms, including Klaviyo, Triple Whale, Okendo and Google Optimize.
Load Your Products
Once you’ve chosen a shopping platform, it’s time to load your products. Make sure that you take good pictures of each product. You’ll want at least four per item. To help you take better pictures, you’ll probably want to invest in a lightbox. Remember to add detailed product descriptions that tell your audience what the product is, its primary features, what makes it great, and anything unique.
Market Your Business with Help from Renaissance Digital Marketing
When it comes to digital marketing for Shopify platforms, choose Renaissance Digital Marketing Shopify experts. They are specialists when it comes to digital marketing for e-commerce sites that use Shopify. They use the best practices when it comes to social media marketing, reaching shoppers through SMS and utilizing influencer and affiliate marketing.
If you want to give your new e-commerce website the best chance of success from your launch-day onward, check out Renaissance Digital Marketing.